With appearance and spread of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and a variety of devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs and technology demanding a large amount of data transmission, data throughput needed in a cellular network has rapidly increased. To satisfy such rapidly increasing data throughput, carrier aggregation technology, cognitive radio technology, etc. for efficiently employing more frequency bands and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, multi-base station (BS) cooperation technology, etc. for raising data capacity transmitted on limited frequency resources have been developed.
A general wireless communication system performs data transmission/reception through one downlink (DL) band and through one uplink (UL) band corresponding to the DL band (in case of a frequency division duplex (FDD) mode), or divides a prescribed radio frame into a UL time unit and a DL time unit in the time domain and then performs data transmission/reception through the UL/DL time unit (in case of a time division duplex (TDD) mode). A base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE) transmit and receive data and/or control information scheduled on a prescribed time unit basis, e.g. on a subframe basis. The data is transmitted and received through a data region configured in a UL/DL subframe and the control information is transmitted and received through a control region configured in the UL/DL subframe. To this end, various physical channels carrying radio signals are formed in the UL/DL subframe. In contrast, carrier aggregation technology serves to use a wider UL/DL bandwidth by aggregating a plurality of UL/DL frequency blocks in order to use a broader frequency band so that more signals relative to signals when a single carrier is used can be simultaneously processed.
In addition, a communication environment has evolved into increasing density of nodes accessible by a user at the periphery of the nodes. A node refers to a fixed point capable of transmitting/receiving a radio signal to/from the UE through one or more antennas. A communication system including high-density nodes may provide a better communication service to the UE through cooperation between the nodes.
Such a multi-node cooperative communication scheme in which a plurality of nodes performs communication with the UE using the same time-frequency resource has much better data throughput than a conventional communication scheme in which the nodes perform communication with the UE without any cooperation by operating as independent BSs.
A multi-node system may perform cooperative communication using a plurality of nodes, each node operating as a BS, an access point, an antenna, an antenna group, a radio remote head (RRH), or a radio remote unit (RRU). In addition, even though a plurality of nodes does not directly participate in signal transmission or signal reception simultaneously, since the nodes are capable of performing signal transmission/reception while reducing mutual interference therebetween, overall communication system throughput can be raised.
Unlike a conventional centralized antenna system in which antennas converge upon a BS, the nodes are typically separated from each other by a predetermined interval or more in the multi-node system. The nodes may be managed by one or more BSs or BS controllers for controlling the operation thereof or scheduling data transmission/reception therethrough. Each node is connected to the BS or BS controller for managing the node through a cable or a dedicated line.
Such a multi-node system may be regarded as a type of MIMO system in that distributed nodes are capable of communicating with a single UE or multiple UEs by simultaneously transmitting/receiving different streams. However, since the multi-node system transmits signals using nodes distributed at various locations, a transmission region which should be covered by each antenna decreases in comparison with antennas included in the conventional centralized antenna system. Accordingly, compared with a conventional system implementing MIMO technology in the centralized antenna system, a transmit power needed when each antenna transmits a signal may be reduced in the multi-node system. In addition, since the transmission distance between an antenna and a UE is shortened, path loss is reduced and high-speed data transmission is achieved. Therefore, transmission capacity and power efficiency of a cellular system can be enhanced and communication performance having relatively uniform quality can be satisfied irrespective of the locations of UEs in a cell. Furthermore, in the multi-node system, since BS(s) or BS controller(s) connected to multiple nodes performs cooperative data transmission/reception, signal loss generated in a transmission process is reduced. In addition, when nodes distant from each other by a predetermined distance or more perform cooperative communication with the UE, correlation and interference between antennas are reduced. Hence, according to the multi-node cooperative communication scheme, a high signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) can be achieved.
Due to such advantages of the multi-node system, in the next-generation mobile communication system, the multi-node system has emerged as a new basis of cellular communication through combination with or by replacing conventional centralized antenna systems in order to reduce additional installation costs of a BS and maintenance costs of a backhaul network and simultaneously to expand service coverage and enhance channel capacity and SINR.